Kuhl — judge him by the company he keeps?
Tom Delay’s protege, of sorts, Roy Blunt, has been in some hot water. Blunt is “best known for his advocacy of the Philip Morris—now Altria—tobacco interests.” Roy Blunt’s PAC “Rely on your Beliefs” gave Kuhl’s campaign $10,000. We also know Blunt and Kuhl have worked together:
Blunt had flown to his upstate New York district two years ago to campaign for Kuhl, helped him get a post office named after a constituent who was killed in Iraq, protect grape growers in his rural district, and secure funding for a job-creating nuclear waste processing plant.
According to a Village Voice article
Blunt divorced his wife of 31 years to marry Abigail Perlman, an Altria lobbyist. Nobody knew the two were an item when Blunt, having just become majority whip, sought to insert a pro–Philip Morris measure into the Homeland Security legislation. Andrew Blunt, the congressman’s son, lobbies for Philip Morris. Altria has given Blunt campaign committees $217,000 in contributions.
Blunt has also done favors for UPS, another of his son’s clients, by sticking a proviso into the Iraq emergency appropriations bill to require that military cargo be carried by majority-owned U.S. firms. That was meant to block foreign competitors of UPS and FedEx from getting a toehold in the profitable wartime postal business. UPS and FedEx together have contributed more than $125,000 to Blunt since 2001.
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If that’s not enough, Congressman Blunt turns up as a signatory on a letter sent by Abramoff interpreting a gambling law so as to help out the Louisiana Coushatta, one of Abramoff’s clients. The letter, which Abramoff had persuaded then majority leader Tom DeLay to put together, was also signed by Speaker Dennis Hastert and Deputy Whip Eric Cantor. Abramoff donated $8,500 to Blunt’s leadership PAC, raising the question as to whether this was a payoff for Blunt’s help.
John Boehner’s PAC, The Freedom Project, donated $5,000 to Kuhl. According to the Post article, Kuhl “considered Boehner a closer friend (than Blunt).” Abramoff was a contributer to Boehner’s PAC. Again, from the Village Voice article
The Center for Responsive Politics reports Boehner got $32,500 in campaign contributions from Indian tribes represented by Abramoff. Public interest groups assailed Boehner in the 1990s for handing out tobacco literature to colleagues on the House floor. The Washington Post reported Boehner’s Freedom Project, a PAC, got $31,500 from four Abramoff tribal clients.
It seems Kuhl is quite happy to be associated with Boehner. He’s overjoyed that Boehner is coming to campaign for him
The Kuhl for Congress campaign announced today that the House Majority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) will be coming to the Southern Tier on Sunday, August 6 to speak at a fundraiser for Rep. John R.“Randy†Kuhl, Jr.
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Nice research, nequals1! Even your travelling road show can’t keep you down!